Metallurgical furnace.



2 SHEETS-SHEET I.

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APPLICATION FILED MAR m o o o b U. WEDGE.

METALLURGICAL FURNACE. APPLICATION FILED III/III. I. ISIS. IIENEWED APII. 21.1916.

Imm mma 12, 1916.

-SHEET 2.

l U'llDlEW EDGE, 0F ARDMOEE, JPENNSYLVM.

`METALLURGIICAL FURNCE.

recano,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented lllieem f2, ldfh..

application med March l, 1915. ferial No. 111,332.4 Renewed april 27, 1916. Serial No. 94,057.

To all whom t may concern Be it known that Il, Umar Wenen, a citizen of the United States,residing in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, have invented certain Improvements inv Metallurgical Furnaces, of which the followingis a specification.

One object of 'my invention is to so construct a metallurgical or like furnace thatl the hearths can be readily introduced into or removed from the same, and another objectl is to provide4 a simple and ed'ective means of mounting the rab les directly upon aliearth of the furnace. These objects lt aton the line 5 1), Fig. l, and Figs. l and 5 are sectional views on enlarged scale, illustrating means employed for sup-porting certain of the rabbles of the furnace.

'lln the drawing, ll have illustrated my invention as applied to a small experimental or laboratory furnace with a central rotating shaft carrying some of the hearths of the furnace, alternating fixed hearths being mounted on the circular wall of the furnace. My invention, however, is not limited to a furnace having alternate fixed and rotating hearths but may be applied to other furnaces as well.

l ln Fig. l of the drawing, l, l re resent the circular wall structure of the urnace and 2 a central rotating shaft which has, near its upper end, a worm wheel 3 rotatably mounted upon anti-friction rollers at the top of the furnace, the suspended portion of this shaft carrying circular hearths d which alternate with xed hearths 5 projecting inwardly from the outer wall of the rnace. l .The furnace char e is rst de osited upon the roof 6 of the urnace, is ed inwardly had to the accompanying.

hearth until it is finally discharged from the lowermost of said hearths.

The feeding of the charge over the hearths 1s e'ectedby means of rah-bles 8 depending from the roof of the furnace, by rabbles 9 depending from the fixed hearths, and by rabbles l0i depending from hearths, said rabbles being mounted as described hereinafter.

'lhe .wall of the furnace is provided with three sets of openings, those of the first set being normally closed by means of plugs 11, those of the second set constituting peep holes, which are preferably provided with transparent heat insulators 12 of mica or other available material, and the third set being provided with the burners la for effooting the heating of the charge. The openings of the first set, when the plugs are removed therefrom, permit access tothe interior of the furnace, the openings of the second .set provided for inspection of the charge 1n its passage through the furnace, and the burners in the openings of the third set radlate heat upon the charge during such passage.

Illhe burners are intended to use liquid or gaseous fuel and each burner consists of a casing 13 closed at its inner end by means of a plug 14 'of lirebrick or other porous refractory material, to the outer face of which the fuel supply has access and, being under pressure, Hows through the pores of the plug and is thereby heated to such temperature that when it reaches the inner face of the plug it will readily ignite and produce a dame whichl covers the face of the plug and radiates heat onto the charge passing through that chamber of the furnace with which the burner communicates.

lin order to prevent overheating or tion of the fuel in the burner casing outwardly beyond the plug 14:, and thus preclude the possibility of a flareback or eX- plosion of gas in the burner casing, l provide-the latter outwardly beyond the plug 14C with a cooling device which may be variously constructed but which, in the present instance, l have shown as in the form of a hollow casing l5 which lits snugly in the igni-V the rotating burner casing 13 and is provided with pipes 16 whereby la flow of water or .other coolm iuid through the same may be maintaine the fuel supply pipe 17 passing through this casing and supplying the -fuel to a chamber 18 intervening between the forward face of said casin and the outer face of the plug 14. The raliles 8 are mounted upon and depend from the roof of the furnace in the manner shown in Fig. 4, each of said rabbles having an enlarged head 8 which fits into the correspondingly enlarged upper portion of a slot formed in the roof of the furnace for the passage ofthe rabble 8 vertically therethrough, said.roof having, in the rear of the rabble, a depending ange 8h constituting a bearing for the upper portion of the rabble and serving to impartthe desired rigidity thereto. The rabbles 9 and 10 `are likewise provided with enlarged upper ends or heads 9 '(Fig. 5), confined between jaws 20 which are inserted into appropriate openings in the hearths` of the furnace and extend below said hearths, the lower ends of each pair o f jaws having inwardly projecting ribs 21 which engage with the enlarged head of the rabble so as to properly support the same vertically. The outer faces of the jaws and the inner faces of the'opeings formed in the hearths for their reception Hare outwardly from bottom to top so that the downward movement of'each Vrabble carrying pair of jaws is arrested when it reaches its proper-position in the hearth.

The space between the jaws above the head of the rabble may be filled with clay or cement 9" or l()b so as to provide a continuous upper surface on the -hearth for the passage ofthe material under treatment but when it is desired to remove a rabble this body of clay or cement can be readily dislodged by upward pressure applied to the rabble head below, or both the rabble and the carrying jaws may be removed from the hearth as a unit and the body of clay or cement afterward dislodged if it. is desired to remove the rabble from between the jaws.

' The rotating hearths 4 are mounted upon rings 22 which are fitted to reduced portions 23 ofthe shaft 2 and project outwardlybeyond said shaft and beneath the hearths 4,

l hearths and the rotating hearths are made in` as shown in Fig. `1, and between the hearths' 4 the shaft 2 is surrounded by rings- 24 of firebrick or other refractory material.

The fixed hearths 5 are mounted upon shelves 25 rojeeting inwardly from the outer wall of) the furnace and both the fixed halves, as sho vn in Fig. 3, in order-that they can be readily inserted and removed from the furnace, the portion 1a of the outer wall being, as shown in Fig. 3, removable from the portlon 1 of the same for this purpose.

In like manner the rings 22 are made in halves, as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 1,

ing an enlarged head with a rabble supporting member having therein a slot enlargedin its upper portion for the reception of the enlarged head on the rabble-blade, said supporting member having also a rib or iange extendlng below the rabble 4head and bearing upon the rear face of the rabble blade.

2. The combination of a rabble blade hav-I ing an enlarged head, a hearth or like support having an opening therein, and a palr of jaws carrying sai rabble blade and adapted to said opening, one of said jaws having a rib for engaging the enlarged head of the rabble blade.

3. The combination of a rabble blade having an enlarged head, a hearth or like support having an opening therein, and a pair of jaws carrying said rabble blade, andl adapted to said opening, each of said jaws having a rib for engaging the enlarged head of the rabble blade.

4. The combination of a rabble blade havin 4an enlarged head, supporting jaws for said rabble blade, a hearth or equivalent blade support having an opening therein for the reception of said jaws, and a filling body occupying the space between said jaws above the top of the rabble blade.

- 5. The combination of therabble blade havin an enlarged head, a hearth or equivalent lade support in which said enlarged head is mounted below the top. of the same,

. and a filling body occupying the space in aangaat and internal sectional hearths Whose sections are laterally removable through the opening in the side wall of the furnace.

9. A circular furnace having an outer wall with removable section at one side of the same, alternating fixed and rotating hearths in said furnace, and a central shaft carrying said rotating hearths, both fixed anol rotating hearths being made in sections removable laterally through the opening in the w side Wall of the furnace.

In testimony whereof, l have signed my name to this specification, in the presence of two subscribing Witnesses.

' UTLEY lfflElDGrE. Witnesses:

KATE A. BEADLE,

HAMILTON D. TURNER. 

